Silly rabbits, paint are for humans!

      Above, i have posted the hardcover and paperback versions of the 1977 children's mystery "The Great Rabbit Rip-off" in the McGurk Organisation mystery series.

      In this book, Wanda enters the office (McGurk's basement) sorely troubled. You see, someone has been going around painting the noses, tails and eyes of neighbourhood decorations-rabbits made by a Donny. Donny is a young man of post-hippie aspect who with his girlfriend and two part time employees makes these rabbits for charity from clay. What troubles Wanda is that she and her big brother have previously pulled a prank with garden gnomes, so her parents think it's them and have summarily pulled their allowances as punishment! McGurk jeers and makes sarcastic remarks because he too (along with Joey and even Willie) also think she and her sibling are the culprits, but a visitor arrives. It's none other than her brother Ed! Ed is a senior in high school, a jock and a straight "A" student. In short, he's the most popular kid in town, even nicknamed Grieg (his last name) the greatest! So when he arrives, McGurk trips over himself to please Ed, and says that he will get right on the case.

       Well, McGurk had devised a scheme of paying informants with candy. In an amusing scene, he has his officers split up and hit the streets.  Joey talks to Gerald "Brains" Bellingham (remember that name-he becomes much more prominent in the series-starting with the next book in fact!) and after some haggling (Brains wants the lion's share of the candy, like any self-respecting squealer would) he tells Joey that Burt Raffety is the culprit. He also derides McGurk saying that Burt was bragging so much about it that he would hear it for himself without "paying" informants.

       It's true-the others all heard that Burt was the one as well. When they approach him, he freely admits that he did the painting as a lark. He is tickled pink that it also got Wanda in trouble, but when Ed talks to Burt, and tells him that he's in the soup as well, Burt is only too happy to confess to the Grieg parents and clear the names of their kids.

     But let me back up a bit. As McGurk and co. were investigating this "crime" they went to "the rabbit factory" (Donny's garage) and spoke with them. Donny and Joanne (his girlfriend) seemed unusually sad, but Sam & Fredie (their employees) were in good spirits. The pair were ex-baddies. Sam was a pickpocket and Fredie a car thief. They had a blast teasing McGurk (pretending that he came to arrest them, and even swiping his ID card (Sam does this now as a joke among friends, but does no stealing anymore))  As Joey is taking notes, he misplaces his pencil. Willie sniffs it out-it got mixed in with some clay that Donny and co. use to make their rabbits. Wanda notes that Joanne's engagement ring is missing and surmises that she and Donny might have had a fight which made them split up. The boys of course couldn't care less.

     The night after the puzzle is solved, all the rabbits disappear! They've been ripped off! Much more serious than nose painting, McGurk is determined to solve this mystery.  Donny comes by and says not to sweat it, and that he and his crew are going to replace all the rabbits free of charge. When McGurk gets his rabbit, Willie (remember, he has a super sense of smell) detects the traces of paint remover on the nose. Now the group know that Donny (or his crew swiped them in the first place). Also, it is noted that Joanne has her ring on.

      McGurk figures it out. Joanne had misplaced her ring. She and Donny suspected Sam or Fredie (or both) to have backslid back to their old thieving ways, and so were very circumspect, yet sad. Then with the pencil incident, they realised that the ring got mixed in with the clay, so they took the rabbits back in the middle of the night (they figured that if people knew a valuable ring was inside, they might try to claim it for themselves), broke open the rabbits until they found the ring, made new ones to replace the broken, and removed the paint from the ones that didn't need to be opened.

      Donny and Joanne were so happy to have been given the idea of where the ring was, that they rewarded the organisation with a clay blob. Inside, it was stuffed with candy! Guess they got their "payment" after all!

       Like i said before, these childhood mysteries hold a special place for me-it was my favourite genre as a kid, and even though i did read some adult mysteries (like Agatha Christie) back then, the ones for kids were just the stuff for a young whippersnapper like me. I think you will enjoy reading the McGurk series and see how even trivial things add up to a mystery for the tween sleuths

1973-The N American oil crisis, and the 1st McGurk book! Oh, and a couple years before i was born

    Without further ado, i will start talking about a most exciting book-the opener for the series!

     The first book, "The Nose Knows" is where everything is set up. Best friends Joey Rockaway and Jack McGurk befriend a new kid moving into town, Willie Sandowsky. Willie is a champion sniffer, and he is using his talent to try to find a catcher's mitt his mom says she packed by sniffing all the empty boxes his family used to cart their things in when moving to their new house.

    McGurk is so impressed with Willie's rare talent that he decides to open up a detective agency! With his ability to think logically, Joey's book smarts, and Willie's ability to sniff out the clues, he thinks there's no case they can't crack.

    The first one will be the missing mitt. You see, Willie's wealthy aunt bought that mitt for him. As Willie explains, she is VERY generous with spending money on her nephew's hobbies and interests, but if he loses one of her gifts, that's it! The flow of presents will instantly dry up! (A bit mean, i say!) McGurk (seeing a bright shiny $10 bill to be used for detective things (like a fingerprint kit) in the balance) pulls all the stops on hunting the clues.

     When Willie smells the box the mitt was packed in (proving his mom did indeed pack it), the trio logically think about who had opportunity to pinch it. Willie remembers a "welcome wagon" of neighbours who greeted the Sandowskys including a few kids who may be the nabbers. As they interview the kids (with Willie smelling their hands), one of them, a girl named Wanda Grieg asks to join the organization. McGurk agrees once she shows them how they can get away with smelling all the ladies' hands who were a part of the welcome wagon (this includes a hilarious scene of the three boys dressing as the Three Musketeers and going around bowing at the ladies, with Willie kissing their hands (and smelling them too))

     After a time, it is shown that a neighbourhood dog was along too, and he is the one who took the glove. A funny chase thru the area, (with McGurk in his best suit to "make the arrest") later, and the quartet get the glove back!

     Ok, my thoughts-this is quite an interesting book! Even now, at 37, i enjoyed reading it again. And as a child, i was absolutely drawn in to McGurk's world. This may be a bit dated in places (the kids are actually RESPECTFUL to adults, there are no double entrendres, or anything indecent in the books), but still quite a fun read. Note: this first book was only sold in the UK and Canada i believe, so it is hard to find. But perhaps not-ebay and amazon let you find almost ANYTHING (hey, there may be some redeeming qualities of 21st century living!)

The McGurk Organization

     Hey guys, sorry for the long absence. Also, i guess i'm just too ADD to start one series, finish it, and go to the next. So, i'm going to embrace my inner child, and dash off to another series! This one is the McGurk mysteries by E W Hildick. He started the series of books around 1973, and ended around 1996 with about 2 dozen titles. Unlike the New Bobbsey Twins which started off with real crimes and continued to kiddie crimes (stealing cookies, etc), Hildick did the opposite. But even the solving of the kiddie crimes were interesting enough to keep the series always fresh. That and the fact that he only wrote roughly a book a year (*an ETERNITY for a kid) made his newest volume always welcome.

     Well, a bit of a character and plot overview. Red-head, 10 year old (at series beginning-over the 23 years of the series, the kids aged about 2 years-meaning that every 10 years in the real world was about a year in the series) McGurk is a natural leader and despite being bossy, an all around good guy. His best friend, Joey Rockaway (the "author" of the series) grew up together. When book 1 "The Nose Knows" opens, Willie Sandowsky moves in to the neighbourhood. Turns out, Willie has an extra sensitive sense of smell, and it is because of this, McGurk decides that he can finally open up a detective business like he always wanted! The trio are joined by Wanda Grieg, a tomboy and tree-climber to round out the organisation.

     A few books later, they are joined by Gerald "Brains" Bellingham-a kid scientist who is a genius with gadjets. By the 1980s (about halfway thru the series), Mari Yoshimura, a youngster originally from Japan joins the group. She is a "voice expert". In addition to being able to imitate any voice she hears, she can tell if a person is lying, and usually tell where they are from, and other characteristics about them without even seeing them!

    Towards the end of the series, the stories go from realistic to pure fantasy with Brains inventing walkie-talkie time machines that let our heroes go back to the Dark Ages and the Middle Ages. To me this is about when the series "jumped the shark". I mean even though this was the early 90s, and i was already a teenager, i think it's the radical change of plot that threw me rather than just outgrowing the series.  And i don't think i was the only one since the series ended soon after (or possibly Mr Hildick was just getting tired-he died that many years later)

   Another strange thing is that in the US, the first book "The Nose Knows" was not sold. I don't know why. In fact, i have paperback copies of some of the books in the US editions, and the second book is labelled #1, the third #2 and so on. Interesting!

    Another thing which i find funny is that Hildick's characters are young tweens living in typical US suburbia, and yet Mr Hildick is British! Hehe-although to my eye at least, he does a good job of painting American life for youngsters back then (but what do i know-i was in Canada!)

     Well, i will probably write my synopsis and thoughts on the first book soon, so please stay tuned!